The last race of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials resulted in a world record. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone led from the start and was never challenged en route to winning her second-straight Olympic Trials 400-meter hurdles title. Her time, 50.65, lowered her own world record from 2022 by 0.03 seconds.
“I was not expecting that,” McLaughlin-Levrone said on NBC after the race. “I’m amazed, baffled, and in shock.”
Anna Cockrell placed second in 52.64. Jasmine Jones took the final Olympic spot in 52.77. Dalilah Muhammad, the 2016 Olympic champion and 2021 Olympic silver medalist, placed sixth in 54.27, and the three women on the Olympic team paid tribute to Muhammad in their post-race interview.
McLaughlin-Levrone, 24, has been superb all season at a range of events. She ran a 4 x 100-meter relay, the 100-meter hurdles, a 200, and a 400 before the Trials began this year. Her time in the open 400, 48.75, is the fastest time in the world so far this year. She should be in at least one and possibly two relays for Team USA in Paris.
McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t contest the 400 hurdles last year due to a knee injury. In her absence, Dutch star Femke Bol, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist, won the 2023 world title. At the 2022 world championships, McLaughlin-Levrone set what at the time seemed to be an otherworldly world record of 50.68, until she bettered it. Bol finished 1.02 seconds behind McLaughlin-Levrone there, but has since improved her best to 51.45. Their rematch will be one of the highlights of the Olympic track program in August.
McLaughlin-Levrone, meanwhile, appears to be inching ever closer to the 50-second barrier. She now owns seven of the 10 fastest times in history, including the top three in the 400-meter hurdles. McLaughlin-Levrone’s time today, with hurdles, would have placed her sixth in the open 400 at this meet, against women running without hurdles.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
